Nokia Says WP7 Phones To Be Unveiled In Weeks, But No Details On Shipping

A bit of non-Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) non-news from Nokia today, really just confirming once again what we have heard before from the company. CEO Stephen Elop today said that the handset maker is on track to show off its first devices built on Windows Phone 7 from Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) in the next couple of weeks.

That timeframe coincides with the Finnish company’s annual conference, Nokia (NYSE: NOK) World, which will be taking place October 26-27 in London.

The comments, made by Elop at a conference earlier today and reported by Reuters, do not detail when, exactly, Nokia plans to actually ship the devices. In the past the company has hinted that it would have its first handsets out in time for the holiday season — although nothing has been confirmed.

There have been reports that Nokia could unveil three different WP7 devices come Nokia World, and that each of them will have design echoes of the new N9 device running MeeGo that Nokia has now started shipping with very limited release. (Some of the concept phones for WP7, released by Nokia, are pictured here.)

The three new devices, code named SeaRay, Sabre and Ace, will all be running the newest version of WP7, Mango.

One detail, if true, could point to a potential bump for Nokia’s profile in the U.S. According to MyNokiaBlog, the Ace will be equipped to work with HSPA+ — Nokia’s first “4G” handset — and it will launch exclusively with AT&T (NYSE: T) in Q1 of 2012.

Recently, Nokia seems to have been in the news for negative rather than positive stories. Last week the company finished off the transaction that finally outsourced Symbian, along with 2,300 of its employees, to Accenture. The company earlier in the week announced streamlining and downsizing plans that will result in a further 3,500 cuts. Adding those two to other cuts made this year and the total number of staff that will have been cut from Nokia this year totals 7,500.